9.20.2010

Want To Lose Belly Fat? Strike A Pose

A researcher from Harvard recently concluded a study and found that certain "power positions" not only reduced stress, they reduced cortisol levels. People with high stress have high cortisol levels and high cortisol levels are associated with belly fat, which is an indicator of higher risk for various health issues...the short of it is this - if you want a quick way to reduce stress and cortisol levels, strike a power pose.

According to Harvard researcher Amy Cuddy:

Subjects in the high-power group were manipulated into two expansive poses for one minute each: first, the classic feet on desk, hands behind head; then, standing and leaning on one's hands over a desk. Those in the low-power group were posed for the time period in two restrictive poses: sitting in a chair with arms held close and hands folded, and standing with arms and legs crossed tightly....

Controlling for subjects' baseline levels of both hormones, Cuddy and her coauthors found that high-power poses decreased cortisol by about 25 percent and increased testosterone by about 19 percent for both men and women. In contrast, low-power poses increased cortisol about 17 percent and decreased testosterone about 10 percent.

Want to read the whole article? Click here.

If you're feeling stressed out, try these power poses (after all, it can't hurt). Stand up and lean over your desk to read a report, contract or your email. Close your door, put your feet up, close your eyes and take a few powerful deep breaths. Feel better already, don't you?

Of course, you can also reduce stress through exercise like walking, running, weight training, yoga and tai chi (to name just a few) and through eating healthy, organic foods (you knew that was coming, didn't you?).

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9.19.2010

Going Green At Home - Part 4

If you haven't read previous posts on this topic, you might want to jump back and start with Part 1 to follow the progress of my amazingly easy green-my-home raised bed garden project.

I don't have a lot of time to monkey around, so I needed this garden project to be easy, fast and successful. As you can see from previous photos, the box, soil and grid went in quickly. We did this over the course of a few weekends, but total time spent on this was probably three or four hours total.Though we did want to start most of our plants from seed, I wanted some instant hits of color for the porch and some basil (since my bird friends have decimated my back porch potted basil plants). I love making my own organic pizza from a rustic crust, simple tomato sauce, organic mozzarella and yes, basil galore. So, basil will be a starter plant.


I chose marigolds for their color and natural pest deterrent properties and salvia for a bit of height and gorgeous purple flowers. The basil also went in along with starter greek oregano and cilantro.

Next up, we planted seeds for several varieties of greens including black seed simpson lettuce and rocket (aka arugula). Broccoli went in - just a couple of seeds in the middle of one square and four days later, I had a green sprout.

Last night I sparingly harvested a few leaves of basil for a pasta dish because, well, I needed that splash of green, that deliciously licorice-y basil flavor to give the dish depth. Perfect, my first harvest.

Stay tuned for what we planted next.

Until next time, go out there and green your home. Take "eat at home" literally!
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9.12.2010

Going Green At Home - Part 3

In Part 1 of Going Green At Home, I talked about deciding to use a front patio space for a raised bed garden. We left off at having put the 8 x 5 x 1 frame in place. Now, let's get down and dirty - let's talk soil.

First, you need to do your math to figure out how many cubic feet of soil you need. Next, you need to decide on the mix. In Tucson, where's it's pretty dry most of the time, a soil that holds moisture is vital to success.

You can go to any garden center and buy a soil mix, usually they carry something appropriate to your area. However, you can also mix your own. In our case, we did the math and figured out we could save about $60 on soil by creating our own mixture - and the added benefit was we could control exactly what went into that mix.

We chose to add a lot of vermiculite - (make sure the vermiculite you choose is asbestos free). Vermiculite holds moisture and acts like a sponge, releasing moisture slowly. Of course, we added organic compost and other soil components to develop a nutrient rich soil mix.

The trick in mixing your own is that you have to deal with bags that are different sizes - some come in 1 cubic ft., 2.2 cubit ft. and so on. Once you decide that you want a soil mixture of say, 30% vermiculite, you need to calculate how many cubic feet that is and then how many bags you'll need. (All I can say is, do your math a couple of times to be sure you're correct and save your receipt).

If you're going to mix your own, make sure you either mix it in place (which is a bit tricky) or have a tarp of some sort. We found that by mixing our soil in three batches and rolling it back and forth in the tarp, we got a good distribution of the various components and had a beautiful soil mixture. We dumped it into the raised bed and repeated two more times until the bed was full. If you find your bed is full after two rounds, just return the unused (and unopened) bags (which is why I highly recommend you save your receipt).

Once you've got your soil in, you can start watering (to hydrate the soil to it doesn't suck the moisture out of your seeds or starer plants). However, we decided that putting a grid in would help - most container gardening books recommend it so you can remember where you planted what - so we used lath to demarcate the sectors. You can make them whatever size you want, we stuck with the standard 12" x 12". The result was an organized grid system that we can track what's been planted where and when.

Next up - planting, growing, marveling.
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